Âs Nutayuneân – We Still Live Here Screening & Panel Discussion

February 3, 2012

A Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Presented by the Northwest Indian Language Institute, the World Languages Academy,
and Many Nations Longhouse
In honor of the Wampanoag People and International Mother Tongues DayFebruary 21, 2012 ♦ 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Many Nations Longhouse

Save the date!

Please join us for a screening of the film Âs Nutayuneân (“We Still Live Here”) and panel discussion on February 21, 2012 at the Many Nations Longhouse. The event will begin at 7:00pm with an introduction to the film and the evening will end with a panel discussion by Native American language revitalization workers, teachers, advocates, and learners.

“On 16 May 2009 the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/RES/61/266 called upon Member States “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world”. By the same resolution, the General Assembly proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of Languages, to promote unity in diversity and international understanding, through multilingualism and multiculturalism.

International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.

Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.”

“Bringing back to life a language that no one has spoken for over a century is a formidable task. Yet, that is the challenge that Jessie Little Doe Baird undertook when she decided to learn the Wampanoag language and teach it to other members of the tribe. Jessie is a visionary and the idea of revitalizing Wampanoag literally came to her in a dream. We Still Live Here – Âs Nutayuneân tells the story of how Jessie followed that dream with the advice and guidance of the elders and leaders of the Wampanoag tribes of Massachusetts.”